Send: Why People Email So Badly and How to Do It Better

Employment law attorney Michael Maslanka comments on the book Send: Why People Email so Badly and How to Do It Better by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe, highlighting the book’s advice on making business e-mail more personal.

I just finished an interesting book, Send: Why People Email So Badly and How to Do It Better, Revised Edition by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe. The book basically deconstructs our e-mail habits. Part of the advice is to use e-mails for facts only, not opinions. The authors advise us to be thoughtful. Trust me, even in a business environment, especially if you’re dealing with colleagues or clients, it feels good to read an e-mail that starts off with a pleasant point (e.g., “Hope you are well”). Know what? It feels just as good to type those words out as it does to read them.

Finally, here’s a thought that I’ve often had: You can mix the quickness of e-mail with the value of a letter very easily. Type a letter (letters have more gravitas than e-mails) as if you were going to put in the mail, but don’t mail it. Instead, save it as a pdf. That way, you get the best of both worlds. If only that was true of everything in life.

Michael Maslanka is the managing partner of Ford & Harrison LLP’s Dallas, Texas, office. He has 20 years of experience in litigation and trial of employment law cases and has served as Adjunct Counsel to a Fortune 10 company where he provided multi-state counseling on employment matters. He has also served as a Field Attorney for the National Labor Relations Board.

Mike is listed in The Best Lawyers in America and was selected as a “Texas Super Lawyer” by Texas Monthly and Law & Politics Magazine in 2003. He was also selected as one of the best lawyers in Dallas by “D” Magazine in 2003. Mike has served as the Chief Author and Editor of the Texas Employment Law Letter since 1990. He also authors the “Work Matters” column for Texas Lawyer.